Suppose I stand up in front of you in my audience, with my palm down and even point my finger at you, and say the following line:
"I am here to tell you something
important. Please pay attention closely. This shall be important for all of
you."
What would you think of me? Arrogant? Dominating? Rude?
Be it friendly chat, official
table talk or talking to an audience, gestures are of paramount
importance. Eye contact, postures, body movement are all part of a set of
activities that validate, reinforce and drive the meaning of the spoken word.
According to studies by UCLA
professor Albert Mehrabian, body language accounts for 55% of a first
impression; 38% comes from tone of voice; 7% comes from our actual words. Today
I am going to talk about gestures and more specifically hand gestures.
If you would disapprove the manner of my opening remark, would it be due to the rudeness of my words? No,
because my words were fairly polite. The thing that would put you off was my
gesture. I gestured like this, with my palm down and even pointed my finger at
you. Palms down is an indicator of rudeness, command and control. Finger
pointing is even worse. I could have said the same thing with my palm up and
you would not be so surprised. Its all related to the hand movement and
orientation. When we talk about command and palms down, who comes to our mind
first? Hail Hitler? Imagine Hitler with his palms up and with a benevolent
gesture. Funny, not fearsome.
Hand gestures can convey a lot of
other messages. Prayers, requests, curses, welcome, dismissal, acceptance,
rejection. Proper gesture shall reinforce the point. Improper shall make it
toothless and even outright ridiculous.
Outstretched hands with palms
towards the audience would mean pushy, arrogant. Same with pams inwards would
mean welcoming, accommodating. If you say ‘come on, join me’ with palms outside,
the meaning would be opposite.
Not only while delivering a talk,
hand positioning and movement (or lack of it) is instrumental in showing the
frame of mind and strength of personality. A hands-down gesture means
dejection, sense of defeat, apprehension, nervousness. A properly placed hand
makes a superman out of an ordinary man. A thumbs up, pat on the back, nice
squeeze of the hand can convey more encouragement than a thousand words of
praise.
Power posing is all about posture
and hands are important part of that.
Though gestures including hand
gestures are universal tool of message conveyance, there might be some cultural
aspects as well. The gesture of taking hand in a eating pose near the mouth means eating for Nepalese, but means entirely
different in Italian culture. Next time you are with an Italian, think twice
before using this gesture. Well-known victory sign with palms inward means
offensive remark in UK, Australia and South Africa. The OK sign means OK in US,
Zero in France, Money in Japan and in Russia, it is considered very offensive.
Except some subtle cultural
nuances, especially involving fingers, hand movement parameters such as
inclination, palm orientation, angle of movement, speed of movement, position
relative to the body etc have universal meaning.
So, whenever you are talking, delivering a speech or having any
face-to-face communication, be sure to consider your gestures including hand
movement. As famous author F. Scott Fitzerald writes in his famous novel The
Great Gatsby, ‘Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures’, our
gestures convey what we are and who we are. Conversely, we can develop personality
with the use of proper gestures.
<<Based on my toastmaster speech in December 2014>>
Posted on Thursday 20 December 2018
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